Srinagar | WTNS | Sep 26: As many as 20 of the 26 Assembly seats that went to polls in the second phase of Jammu and Kashmir elections on Wednesday saw a drop in voter turnout as compared to 2014, the last time polling was held in the erstwhile state, shows Election Commission’s data.

According to the Election Commission of India, the voter turnout in the second phase of polls was recorded at 57.03 percent – lower than the 61.13 percent polling seen in the first phase of elections. The 2014 figure stood above 60 percent in the Assembly segments in the six districts that went to polls on Wednesday.

A total of 26 constituencies across the six districts of Budgam, Ganderbal, Poonch, Rajouri, Reasi and Srinagar went to polls in the second of the five-phase polls on Wednesday. Of these, 25 assembly segments in Srinagar, Ganderbal, Budgam, Reasi, Rajouri and Poonch districts went to polls in the 2014 polls while the number increased by one seat to 26 in these six districts following the delimitation exercise in 2022.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has hailed the peaceful and high-spirited participation of voters during the second phase of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly elections.

Meanwhile , A 15-member foreign delegation made a surprise landing in Kashmir on a day when the second phase of the polling is in full swing for 26 Assembly constituencies of the UT. The diplomats stated that their purpose is to “observe polling and to see how democracy is working on ground.”

The high-level delegation comprises senior diplomats from USA, Mexico, Guyana, South Korea, Somalia, Panama, Singapore, Nigeria, Spain, South Africa, Norway, Tanzania, Rwanda, Algeria, and Philippines. This is for the first time that the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has invited foreign diplomats in the middle of J&K Assembly polls taking place after a decade.